Basic Guide for Noobs Regarding Current TM Squad

[Mamad Gorgu]

I wanted to post this thread for those of us who haven't followed this current Team Melli. I followed Team Melli religiously from 1996 to 2014 but life got in the way and I stopped following for the most part.

I'm hoping you guys could give me (and others) some highlights about this current TM. Who the best players are, how do we compare to the 1998/2006/2014 teams, interesting info regarding players, which players aren't so good, just any information that would help me catch up and know what I'm talking about (especially since I've booked tickets to watch Iran's games in Spain with my Spanish friends).

Also, I don't know who all the starters are but if some of you could rate our players from a 1 to 10, at least the ones that will get game time, I would really appreciate it:

Goalkeepers:
Alireza Beyranvand
Rashid Mazaheri
Amir Abedzadeh

Defenders:
Majid Hosseini
Ramin Rezaeian
Mohammad Reza Khanzadeh
Morteza Pouraliganji
Pejman Montazeri
Milad Mohammadi
Roozbeh Cheshmi
Ehsan Hajsafi

Midfielders:
Saeid Ezatollahi
Masoud Shojaei
Mehdi Torabi
Omid Ebrahimi
Karim Ansarifard

Forwards:
Alireza Jahanbakhsh
Mahdi Taremi
Sardar Azmoun
Reza Ghoochannejhad
Saman Ghoddos
Ashkan Dejagah
Vahid Amiri

p.s. I especially was in love with our 2006 WC team. We had such high quality players that played in top European sides. I'll be especially interesting to read any analysis you guys have on how this team compares with that one.

Edit: Comparisons to the 2010 team would be welcome too.

[Tehranto]

Good thread.

I also did an interview, that you can read here that will give you some backdrop information on Team Melli: https://gj2018worldcup.wordpress.com...iew-from-iran/

[Kiarash]

For me personally it is the following (I wouldn't like to speak of ''worst'' players):

Best players
9 - Alireza Jahanbakhsh
8 - Sardar Azmoun
7 - Ashkan Dejagah
7 - Milad Mohammadi

Questionable call-ups
5 - Roozbeh Cheshmi
5 - Mohammadreza Khanzadeh
5 - Vahid Amiri

[Sam van Dam]

Our team today is less talented than our 2006 squad, but they are more united as there aren't any drama queens like Karimi stirring up shit. Our squad today is much more disciplined and organized thanks to CQ (CQ is our coaches initials ). We generally let the other team have possession then emphasize on capitalizing on the counter attack, but have played more attacking football over the past year or so. I generally don't like it, as it is boring, but it gets us results... we opened up our game vs Bosnia and got hammered 3-1, but when we played our system we drew Nigeria and could have beaten Argentina.

Our best players are Alireza Jahanbakhsh who on this forum is known as JB or AJB. Saman Ghoddos, but he is always on the bench. Sardar Azmoun who is a goal scoring machine. he is known as the iranian messi, but to me he is more of a zlatan ibrahimovic.

our starting goalie Alireza Beiranvand can throw the ball farther than Mirzapour can kick.

Vahid Amiri just runs a lot, taremi has some quality. either one will play over ghoddos which is a shame. and roozbeh cheshmi is our worst player, but CQ is very fond of him and we all expect him to be starting. he'll most likely be responsible for any goal scored against us.

oh yeah make sure you have plenty of advil or alcohol during our games. you will be stressed the fcuk out.

Dejagah is a good player but hasn't really been playing club football over the past 3 years. he is very injury prone as a result of this and will probably be playing in a wheelchair, but still be better than most of our team

ghoochannejhad is known here as GUCCI and he is clutch. if we need a goal, he will score off the bench.

mohammadi is known as MiMo as is pretty much the second coming of hossein kaebi, besides the age part. he is a solid speedy left back and will be heavily involved with our attack. he's a freaking pitbull.

hajsafi and ansarifard waste quality chances by kicking the ball to the second deck of the stands. AJB sometimes does this too.

[Babak agha]

Goalkeepers:
Alireza Beyranvand (6)
Rashid Mazaheri (6)
Amir Abedzadeh (5)

Defenders:
Majid Hosseini (5)
Ramin Rezaeian (5)
Mohammad Reza Khanzadeh (5)
Morteza Pouraliganji (7)
Pejman Montazeri (6)
Milad Mohammadi (8)
Roozbeh Cheshmi (5)
Ehsan Hajsafi (7)


Midfielders:
Saeid Ezatollahi (7)
Masoud Shojaei (6)
Mehdi Torabi (5)
Omid Ebrahimi (6)
Karim Ansarifard (6)

Forwards:
Alireza Jahanbakhsh (9)
Mahdi Taremi (8)
Sardar Azmoun (9)
Reza Ghoochannejhad (7)
Saman Ghoddos (7)
Ashkan Dejagah (8)
Vahid Amiri (5)

[Mamad Gorgu]

Good thread.

I also did an interview, that you can read here that will give you some backdrop information on Team Melli: https://gj2018worldcup.wordpress.com...iew-from-iran/

Below is for anyone to answer, not just Tehranto.

That was such a brilliant primer, thank you. I have some questions though:

1. When you say we have upwards of 15 players playing in Europe, do you mean this current 23-man squad does or Iran in general?

2. I'm so happy to hear Carlos is insisting our players play in Europe (sidenote: I happened to be sitting by him at the Dubai airport and chatted with him for about 10 minutes and scouting Europeans of Iranian heritage to play for Iran was my main point to him). My question is, has he simply encouraged our players to play in Europe or perhaps used his connections to faciliate any of them to make that move?

3. Do we have more players in our squad playing in Europe than Morocco?

4. You mentioned we not longer struggle against certain Asian teams. Presumably you're referring to the so-called grassrolling teams like Bahrain and Oman etc.? I remember playing them has always been torturous to watch. Are we winning so comfortably againist them despite their time-wasting tactics that this is no longer an issue?

5. You mention Morocco is perhaps the best team in Africa. Can you elaborate more on this? I know you mentioned they haven't lost in a year and only conceded 3 goals. Didn't we also go something like 10 games without losing? Do you have any idea how many goals we conceded during qualification?

6. My impression from reading this forum is that although we have fantastic strikers, we play more defensively. If I'm not mistaken we tend to score few goals but we also tend to concede even less. Is my perception accurate?

7. You mentioned Saeid Ezatolahi being suspended the first game. Why is that?

8. You said we've had multiple cancellations and other side issues. Who cancelled on us and why? And regarding side issues, aside from the women in stadium ban, what else has come up?

Important: I'm hoping other members can answer whichever of the questions they can, this is not addressed only to Tehranto. Sorry Tehranto for throwing a lot at you.

[Mamad Gorgu]

Questionable call-ups
5 - Roozbeh Cheshmi

I'm curious why this name repeatedly comes up for criticism. What has he done or not done that he seems to have so many viewing him unfavourably, and is he likely to be a starter?

[Sam van Dam]

a lot of these questions you asked can be found yourself if you did a little research

ezzatolahi is suspended due to a red card he received vs south korea. he stomped on a players head

although wikipedia isn't an official source, it is easy to see our wins/losses

when it shows our roster it also shows which clubs our players are on. you can find out who plays in europe that way

[Mamad Gorgu]

oh yeah make sure you have plenty of advil or alcohol during our games. you will be stressed the fcuk out.

Glad to see at least some things haven't changed. ;P

Thanks for the excellent overall summary, very insightful.

[GolfePersique]

I'm curious why this name repeatedly comes up for criticism. What has he done or not done that he seems to have so many viewing him unfavourably, and is he likely to be a starter?

The poor guy was involved in some of the goals we received in friendlies, although CQ was using experimental formations.

Indeed, he doesn't have the experience or the leadership of Seyed Jalal, but I feel many of us have been too harsh on him. Surely Carlos wouldn't risk his reputation for a player who wouldn't deserve to be in his squad.

[Mamad Gorgu]

Goalkeepers:
Alireza Beyranvand (6)
Rashid Mazaheri (6)
Amir Abedzadeh (5)

Wasn't Beyranvand at one point hosting a TV show on one of those LA Persian satellite channels? Or am I thinking of someone else?

[Sam van Dam]

no. beiranvand used to be homeless. he was too busy chasing his dream than to be on tv

[Mamad Gorgu]

The poor guy was involved in some of the goals we received in friendlies, although CQ was using experimental formations.

Indeed, he doesn't have the experience or the leadership of Seyed Jalal, but I feel many of us have been too harsh on him. Surely Carlos wouldn't risk his reputation for a player who wouldn't deserve to be in his squad.

Ahh, that's interesting. Managers sometimes are stubborn like that I suppose. God knows why Mourinho insists on playing Fellaini or Guardiola playing Bravo last season. It's just a shame I can't find any of Cheshmi's mistakes on Youtube. Do you reckon he's likely to start?

[Sam van Dam]

just watch highlights of iran vs tunisia or turkey. all 3 total goals conceded were "defended" by him. cq favorites him and we are 99% sure he will be starting.

this is the story on biero if you're interested

https://www.theguardian.com/football...ran-goalkeeper

[Mamad Gorgu]

just watch highlights of iran vs tunisia or turkey. all 3 total goals conceded were "defended" by him. cq favorites him and we are 99% sure he will be starting.

this is the story on biero if you're interested

https://www.theguardian.com/football...ran-goalkeeper

Jesus Christ what a moving life story. That's just amazing. Thanks so much for that link, especially since it linked to another page that had all the players names with their photo next to it. I was looking everywhere for something like that.